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Eric McFadden and Kate Vargas feat. Reed Mathis and Paulo Baldi

Eric McFadden is a guitar virtuoso/songwriter/vocalist. He has toured the world both as a solo artist, as well as with funk legend George Clinton (Parliament/Funkadelic), and rock legend Eric Burdon (The Animals). McFadden is a member of the new supergroup, T.E.N, alongside Thomas Pridgen (Mars Volta) and Norwood Fisher (Fishbone). McFadden spent years touring extensively with the Eric McFadden Trio (EMT), which features bass phenomenon James Whiton (Tom Waits) and drummer extraordinaire, Paulo Baldi (Cake, Les Claypool). Eric is also a member of the all-star band, Stockholm Syndrome, which also includes notable players such as Dave Schools (Widespread Panic), Jerry Joseph (Jack Mormons), Wally Ingram (Sheryl Crow) and Danny Louis (Govt Mule). Between 2015 and 2017, Eric spent 2 1/2 years touring as guitarist for New Orleans favorite, Anders Osborne.

Eric McFadden is a veteran of such celebrated west coast bands as Alien Lovestock, Angry Babies, Tasty Face, Liar, IZM, EMT, and the Faraway Brothers.

Eric recently signed with Tab Benoit’s label, Whiskey Bayou records. He’s been touring in support of his new album, “Pain By Numbers”, which features, Doug Wimbish (Living Colour, Mick Jagger) and Terence Higgins (Ani DiFranco, Warren Haynes), and was released September 7th 2018. In addition, Eric just released in November on Bad Reputation out of France, was Eric’s all acoustic AC/DC tribute record. Also released in 2018 was his duo record with guitar great, Omar Torrez (Tom Waits). Among his other recent projects is,The Sophistakits, which was co-founded with guitarist and friend, Eddie Roberts (New Mastersounds), and includes Wally Ingram, Miles Tackett, Jeff Franca and Chris Spies.

A reformed wild child, in recent years Kate Vargas has traded the party for meditation, yoga, clean eating and a renewed focus on what she values most—her music. The New Mexico-raised, NYC-based artist is building ever more mindfully on her sound, and the music press is taking notice, Vargas receiving praise from a variety of respected outlets including Billboard, NPR, Noisey, and the Huffington Post, the latter assessing, “There is an unlimited amount of potential in this superstar on the rise.”

Vargas has dazzled audiences from Santa Fe to Frankfurt, Seattle to Reykjavik with her inimitable songwriting and bewitching sounds, most recently packing rooms at Americanafest, 30A Songwriters Festival, and NPR’s Mountain Stage. With songs grounded in a darkly melodic, reverb-washed sonic palette of dreampop, dusty folk and junkyard blues, all carried by Vargas’ rough-hewn vocals and guitar playing, she channels a surprising array of artists, from Tom Waits and 16 Horsepower to Lana Del Rey and K. Flay.

While on tour with various bands over the past few years—including Billy & the Kids (led by the Grateful Dead’s Bill Kreutzmann), Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey and Tea Leaf Green—bassist extraordinaire Reed Mathis spent his spare time rearranging Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 3” and “Symphony No. 6,” recording each newly reimagined movement with a long and impressive “who’s-who” of his musical brethren, including Phish’s Page McConnell and Mike Gordon, Galactic’s Stanton Moore, Brad and Andrew Barr (The Slip / Barr Brothers), Marco Benevento, Joe Russo, Robert Walter and Mike Dillon.

For the majority of the nine movements that comprise the two symphonies, Reed traveled to these musicians’ respective hometowns, recording them in their natural environment. Having befriended many musical greats throughout his career, Reed chose the artists that, he felt, best embodied the spirit of Beethoven. It’s little coincidence that, unlike contemporaries in modern-day orchestras, these “rock” musicians had comparatively little classical music training (if at all). In fact, most of them confessed that, prior to Reed pitching them on the project, they had no intimate prior knowledge of the movement that they were drafted to perform.

This, in fact, suited Reed’s vision for bringing Beethoven into the 21st century better than if the musicians had been versed in the composer’s work. Reed wanted his collaborators to have the freedom to create and interpret as themselves. His concept being that even when composed music—be it a song or a symphony—has been performed for centuries, the notes and rhythms are still supposed to be embedded with personal context. After all, the music that most deeply affects us is music that is relatable. Classical music purists tend to disregard that directive in favor of a strict handed-down construct. Reed’s mission with this project, then, was to free these symphonies from their historic chains and place them back in the here-and-now. It’s music of the moment, even if that moment has been happening for more than 200 years.

Paulo Baldi is a drummer for Claypool/Lennon Delirium. Formerly with Les Claypool, Cake, Deadweight, Faraway Brothers and Eric McFadden Trio which have taken him on numerous international tours throughout Europe, Japan and Australia as well as rarely visited venues in Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey and Greece.

Paulo has appeared on "Late Show" with David Letterman “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”, "Conan", “Jimmy Kimmel Live”, “The Late Late Show” and "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon", "Lopez Tonight", NPR's "All Things Considered" and the RUSH induction ceremony into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Paulo has been an influential percussionist in the San Francisco music scene since he moved there from New Mexico in 1996. A founding member of the popular San Francisco rock trio, Deadweight, Paulo has made a distinct mark in the local rock music community, but his interest and studies in world percussion have led him to explore performance opportunities with a variety of international music groups including Pakistani vocalist group, the Ali Khan Band and flamenco guitarist, Ottmar Liebert.

Amongst touring and local gigs, Paulo is a sought-after studio drummer. His drumming can be heard on Cake's "Showroom of Compassion", Les Claypool’s “Of Fungi and Foe,” and Cake’s “B-sides and Rarities”, Cake's Pressure Chief as well as “The Joy of Suffering” by the Eric McFadden Trio (EMT), “Stroking The Moon” by Deadweight and “Push,” the latest record by the Faraway Brothers. Paulo has also been a part of dozens of recording sessions for artists across the country seeking his talents as not only a solid, consistent drum set player, but an accomplished hand percussionist.